Some tickets for Joel Osteen's appearances in Brooklyn and Tampa are currently being resold for more than 15 times the original sale price.
Lakewood Church/Facebook
Megachurch pastor Joel Osteen is well known for drawing enormous crowds at the 16,000-seat Lakewood Church, and his popularity certainly doesn't stop in Houston.
The pastor — whose sermons are broadcasted and viewed by more than 20 million Americans each month — has two upcoming appearances for "A Night of Hope with Joel Osteen" — one at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on October 16 and another at the Amalie Arena in Tampa on November 13.
Osteen's immense popularity means that tickets for his appearances are being bought and re-sold at much higher prices. Even though tickets originally sold for $27.40 each, floor seats are listed for more than 15 times the original price on resale ticket websites.
For example, a seat in Row 7 of the floor section directly in front of the stage for his Brooklyn appearance is listed for $629 each on ticket website StubHub. The cheapest available seats in the central floor section for that appearance (on any of the sites with tickets listed for the event) are $312 each.
Tickets for Osteen's appearance in Tampa aren't priced much lower, with central floor seats costing between $600 and $300 each.
In comparison to other major events at the same venues, tickets of a similar proximity to the stage to see Madonna at Barclays Center run around $1,000 each and similar seats to see Janet Jackson at the Amalie Arena will cost around $500 each.
Although the more desirable seats in lower sections are priced very high, seats in upper sections can currently be found for roughly the original price — around $30.
Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in The Housemaid.
Both Amanda Seyfried (the upcoming The Testament of Ann Lee) and Sydney Sweeney (Christy) are starring in movies with Oscar ambitions this year. By sheer coincidence, the two actors are also co-starring in The Housemaid, a thriller coming out within weeks of their more ambitious works, one that is likely to be seen by many more people than those prestige plays.
Sweeney is given top billing as Millie, a down-on-her-luck ex-convict looking to land any type of job so as not to break her parole. She finds a too-good-to-be-true lifeboat with Nina (Seyfried), who hires her to be a housemaid for her large house on Long Island, where she lives with her husband, Andrew (Brandon Sklenar), and daughter, Cecilia (Indiana Elle).
After a warm interview, Nina almost immediately becomes highly erratic, whipping back-and-forth between happy-go-lucky and rageful. It seems clear that Nina is suffering from mental health issues, as she’ll often accuse Millie of misplacing or stealing items that she didn’t take. Andrew, apparently used to Nina’s tirades, tries to protect Millie from the worst, something that grows increasingly difficult as Nina ups the ante.
Directed by Paul Feig (A Simple Favor) and adapted by Rebecca Sonnenshine from the bestselling book by Freida McFadden, the film is likely the trashiest mainstream movie to come out in 2025. The first half of the movie relies not on story but on moments as Nina embodies the word “hysterical” to an unbelievable extent. The resigned acceptance of the abuse by Millie, as well as the saintly patience of Andrew, make almost every scene laughable, as nobody seems to be acting anywhere close to how a person would normally react to such extreme situations.
The scenes and the performance of Seyfried are so over-the-top, in fact, that it’s clear that the filmmakers are in on the joke. It’s next to impossible not to have a little bit of fun while watching the actors react to outrageous incidents as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The worse Nina acts, the more Millie and Andrew retreat into their chosen roles, and the funnier the film becomes.
Fans of the book will know that the story changes course, eventually turning into a more stereotypical thriller that also has some relatively gnarly visuals to offer. But the trashiness continues, with Sweeney’s, um, assets repeatedly on display in both clothed and unclothed ways. The sex appeal of the R-rated movie makes it an outlier, as recent studio films have shied away from asking their big stars to disrobe completely.
Both Seyfried and Sweeney are far from their Oscar hopeful roles here. Seyfried is given free rein to act as brazenly as she pleases, and she takes full advantage of that ability. Sweeney seems to have been told to be much more reserved, and unfortunately that results in too many wooden line readings. Sklenar continues his breakout streak (It Ends with Us, Drop) with a role that allows him to show more range than either Seyfried or Sweeney.
The Housemaid is an unusual type of movie to be released at a time of year when most films are either those aiming for awards or more family-friendly fare. Despite its many flaws, it’s still an enjoyable watch that features a variety of crazy scenarios not typically seen in movies nowadays.
